The Thai government today said it had photographic evidence of Thai Islamic militants training in Malaysia, days after the Malaysian government strongly denied the claims.

"Our intelligence reports said they were conducting arms training and there are more than 10 key members in Kelantan state," Deputy Interior Minister Sutham Sangprathum told reporters.

"We have photographs of the training," he said. "We are ready to hand these photos over to Malaysia if they wish."

Sutham said the pictures had been in the hands of Thai security forces for some time but had only recently come to his attention.

He did not indicate how many militants, who had allegedly trained in Malaysia, were currently hiding across the border, but said "we want Malaysia to arrest these people and hand them to us".

Kelantan borders southern Thailand, where an Islamic separatist insurgency has killed more than 560 people this year.

Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said Friday that some of the militants waging the insurgency had been trained in Malaysia, charges that were quickly denied by his Malaysian counterpart Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.

The charges were quickly denied by his Malaysian counterpart Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.

"Malaysia is not a base to be used by any group to make plans against any country," Abdullah was quoted as saying by the Sunday Star newspaper.

Abdullah said he was disappointed Thaksin did not use diplomatic channels to air his claims.

Wild allegations

Malaysia's Education Minister Hishammuddin Hussein on Saturday warned Thaksin not to make such "wild allegations", according to the official Bernama news agency, in a sign that a diplomatic row was heating up over the claims.

Sutham said Thailand would "speed up its coordination with Malaysia" in an attempt to smooth over any misunderstanding that had emerged from Thai claims about the training in Kelantan.

He also said Thailand had evidence of the secret training dating back to 1993 but had been unable to help bring the training to a halt as no witnesses would come forward to testify about it.

Kelantan is the only Malaysian state ruled by the opposition Islamic party PAS and shares a border with the southern provinces of mainly Buddhist Thailand.

Earlier this month a Malaysian lawmaker claimed that the outlawed Pattani United Liberation Organisation, which is fighting for a separate Islamic state in southern Thailand, had received RM120,000 from the Kelantan state branch of the Malaysian Islamic Welfare Organisation.

Malaysia said it does not support the separatist movement.